Apparatus and method for cavity-enhanced ultrafast two-dimensional spectroscopy
10620048 ยท 2020-04-14
Assignee
Inventors
Cpc classification
G01N21/636
PHYSICS
G01J3/10
PHYSICS
International classification
G01J3/44
PHYSICS
G01J3/26
PHYSICS
G01J3/10
PHYSICS
Abstract
Provided are an apparatus and method for two-dimensional spectroscopy using frequency combs and optical resonators, with the apparatus including at least one cavity and a controller for controlling generating a pump excitation using at least two frequency combs, generating a probe excitation using at least one frequency comb, and generating a resonantly enhanced signal frequency comb via a nonlinear-optical response of the sample. All frequency combs are resonant with a transverse mode of the cavity, to generate cavity-enhanced two-dimensional spectroscopy signals.
Claims
1. An apparatus for two-dimensional (2D) spectroscopy, the apparatus comprising: at least one cavity configured to contain a sample; and a controller configured to control a pump excitation using at least two frequency combs resonantly enhanced in at least one transverse mode of the at least one cavity, a probe excitation using at least one frequency comb resonantly enhanced in at least one transverse mode of the at least one cavity, and generating a resonantly enhanced signal frequency comb via a nonlinear-optical response of the sample, wherein pump pulses and probe pulses circulate about the at least one cavity to acquire intracavity round trip phase shifts.
2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the intracavity round trip phase shifts are based on differing carrier envelope offset frequencies of the at least two frequency combs of the pump excitation.
3. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the intracavity round trip phase shifts are based on a round trip Gouy phase of an Hermite-Gaussian mode.
4. An apparatus for two-dimensional (2D) spectroscopy, the apparatus comprising: at least one cavity configured to contain a sample; and a controller configured to control a pump excitation using at least two frequency combs resonantly enhanced in at least one transverse mode of the at least one cavity, a probe excitation using at least one frequency comb resonantly enhanced in at least one transverse mode of the at least one cavity, and generating a resonantly enhanced signal frequency comb via a nonlinear-optical response of the sample, further comprising an interferometer that includes at least one acousto-optic modulator (AOM) configured to generate the at least two frequency combs of the pump excitation and the at least one frequency comb of the probe excitation.
5. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein cavity-enhanced 2D spectroscopy is performed using only one frequency comb generator, with additional phase-cycling frequency combs produced using the at least one AOM.
6. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the frequency comb generator is a mode-locked laser.
7. An apparatus for two-dimensional (2D) spectroscopy, the apparatus comprising: at least one cavity configured to contain a sample; and a controller configured to control a pump excitation using at least two frequency combs resonantly enhanced in at least one transverse mode of the at least one cavity, a probe excitation using at least one frequency comb resonantly enhanced in at least one transverse mode of the at least one cavity, and generating a resonantly enhanced signal frequency comb via a nonlinear-optical response of the sample, wherein a combination of spatial mode discrimination, frequency discrimination, and temporal discrimination suppresses undesired signals from a 2D spectroscopy signal.
8. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the 2D spectroscopy signal is isolated using heterodyne detection with a local oscillator comb.
9. An apparatus for performing optical spectroscopy, the apparatus comprising: at least two cavities; and a controller configured to control a pump excitation using at least two frequency combs resonantly enhanced in at least one transverse mode of a pump cavity of the at least two cavities, a probe excitation using at least one frequency comb resonantly enhanced in at least one transverse mode of a probe cavity of the at least two cavities, and generating a resonantly enhanced signal frequency comb via a nonlinear-optical response of the sample, further comprising at least one point of overlap of the pump excitation and the probe excitation in the at least two cavities.
10. An apparatus for performing optical spectroscopy, the apparatus comprising: at least two cavities; and a controller configured to control a pump excitation using at least two frequency combs resonantly enhanced in at least one transverse mode of a pump cavity of the at least two cavities, a probe excitation using at least one frequency comb resonantly enhanced in at least one transverse mode of a probe cavity of the at least two cavities, and generating a resonantly enhanced signal frequency comb via a nonlinear-optical response of the sample, wherein the at least two cavities provide a non-collinear geometry.
11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the controller is further configured to isolate a 2D spectroscopy signal in the non-collinear geometry by demodulating a signal that appears as an amplitude modulation on light transmitted in the probe cavity.
12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the controller is further configured to control recording of the 2D spectroscopy signal using demodulation of the light transmitted in the probe cavity at a demodulation frequency of carrier-envelope offset differences of the at least two frequency combs of the pump excitation.
13. A method for performing two-dimensional (2D) spectroscopy, comprising: generating a pump excitation using at least two frequency combs; generating a probe excitation using at least one frequency comb; and generating resonantly enhanced signal frequency combs via a nonlinear optical response of a sample, wherein the at least two pump frequency combs and the at least one probe frequency are resonant with at least one transverse mode of at least one cavity in which a sample is positioned for performing 2D spectroscopy.
14. The method of claim 13, wherein the resonantly enhanced signal frequency combs enhance the 2D spectroscopy of the sample.
15. The method of claim 13, wherein the at least two pump frequency combs and the at least one probe frequency comb are coupled to at least one transverse mode of the at least one cavity.
16. The method of claim 13, wherein probe pulses acquire phase shifts in each round trip of the at least one cavity, with the acquired phase shifts based on a round trip Gouy phase of an Hermite-Gaussian mode.
17. The method of claim 13, wherein circulating pump pulses acquire phase shifts in each round trip of the at least one cavity.
18. The method of claim 17, wherein the acquired phase shifts of the circulating pump pulses are based on a round trip Gouy phase of an Hermite-Gaussian mode.
Description
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
(1) The above and other aspects, features and advantages of the present invention will be more apparent from the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:
(2)
(3)
(4)
(5)
(6)
(7)
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
(8) Embodiments of the present disclosure are described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. Detailed descriptions of constructions or processes known in the art may be omitted to avoid obscuring the subject matter of the present disclosure. Further, in the following description of the present disclosure, various specific definitions found in the following description are provided to give a general understanding of the present disclosure, and it is apparent to those skilled in the art that the present disclosure can be implemented without such definitions.
(9) Provided is an improved method of ultrasensitive detection of nonlinear-optical spectroscopy signals from dilute samples, such as dilute gasses, sparsely covered surfaces, or solutions with ultra-low concentration. The enabling technology is a combination of frequency comb lasers and high-finesse optical resonators, or femtosecond enhancement cavities (fsEC). By carefully matching the repetition rate and phase evolution of pulses from a frequency comb with that of the pulse in the fsEC, femtosecond pulses can be coherently added and passively amplified [16-18]. Using the comb as a million stable lasers at once [19], this technology was conventionally applied to linear spectroscopy, focusing mostly on the application of trace gas detection (see U.S. Pat. No. 7,538,881 to Ye and [20]). However, the enormous potential for femtosecond time-resolved measurements had not been explored. In previous work, the inventor demonstrated the first cavity-enhancement of ultrafast spectroscopy signals [21], performing a transient absorption experiment in a dilute molecular iodine sample.
(10) The present disclosure goes beyond transient absorption to measure multidimensional spectroscopy [22] signals using the phase cycling of multiple fsEC-enhanced frequency combs.
(11)
(12) The multiple required frequency combs with adjustable delay and independent carrier-envelope offset frequencies can be generated using one frequency comb light source (e.g. a mode-locked laser) and the interferometer 120, which includes at least one acousto-optic modulator (AOM) configured to generate the additional frequency combs. Alternatively, multiple phase-locked frequency comb sources with independent repetition rates can be used, as in dual comb techniques [23] for linear spectroscopy, at added cost and complexity. Either way, the three frequency combs coupled to distinct higher-order transverse or longitudinal modes of the cavity with distinct carrier-envelope offset frequencies. A resonantly-enhanced 2D spectroscopy signal is generated upon satisfying a resonance condition as illustrated in
(13) The single cavity apparatus includes at least one cavity that is configured to contain a sample and a controller 110 that controls a pump excitation using at least two frequency combs resonantly enhanced in at least one transverse mode of the at least one cavity. Controller 110 also controls a probe excitation using at least one frequency comb resonantly enhanced in at least one transverse mode of the at least one cavity and the generating of a resonantly enhanced signal frequency comb via a nonlinear-optical response of the sample. The pump pulses and the probe pulses circulate about the at least one cavity to acquire intracavity round trip phase shifts, which are based on differing carrier envelope offset frequencies of the at least two frequency combs of the pump excitation, and the intracavity round trip phase shifts are based on a round trip Gouy phase of an Hermite-Gaussian mode. A combination of spatial mode discrimination, frequency discrimination, and temporal discrimination suppresses undesired signals from a 2D spectroscopy signal, and the 2D spectroscopy signal can be isolated using heterodyne detection with a local oscillator comb.
(14) The single cavity apparatus 100 provides simplified alignment and laser/cavity stabilization, and allows for use of an extended sample, as would be produced by filling the cavity with sample gas or using a slit supersonic expansion. By choosing the symmetry of the excited cavity modes and tuning the resonance frequencies, the spectroscopist can select what signals are resonantly enhanced and suppress background.
(15)
(16) Using higher-order TEM.sub.lm modes of the cavity provides greater opportunities for enhancing a particular desired 2D spectroscopy and suppressing background signals than using the lowest order TEM.sub.00 mode alone. Phase cycling using higher-order modes utilizes the mode structure of optical resonators. In an optical cavity, light pulses in different spatial modes acquire a round trip differential phase shift due to the dependence of the round-trip Gouy phase on the Hermite-Gaussian mode. In general, if E.sub.1 is in the TEM.sub.l1m1 mode and E.sub.2 is in the TEM.sub.l2m2 mode, in each round trip they acquire a relative phase shift of Equation (1):
.sub.12|round trip=(l.sub.1l.sub.2).sub.tan+(m.sub.1m.sub.2).sub.sag(1)
with the Gouy phase shifts .sub.tan and .sub.sag solely determined by the geometry of the cavity, related to the components of the ABCD matrices via =sgn(B) cos.sup.1[(A+D)/2], with separate ABCD matrices for the sagittal and tangential planes, respectively. These phase shifts are tunable by changing the cavity geometry. For example, in the ring cavities of
(17)
(18) Thus, coupling combs to the higher-order modes of an optical cavity causes phase cycling, and new combs are generated that can also be made resonant. As discussed below, mode-matching also provides spatial isolation of the signal analogous to non-collinear phase matching in conventional 2D spectrometers.
(19) For conciseness, the present disclosure is based on bow-tie ring cavities, which allow independent control of the overall cavity length and focus size, though the present disclosure is not so limited. Ring cavities provide separate control of the peak intensity at the sample and the repetition rate of the system, and allow for easy introduction of counter-propagating reference beams for common-mode noise subtraction, as has been critical for the success of CE-TAS [21].
(20) Hermite-Gaussian spatial modes of a ring cavity with normalized field amplitudes are described mathematically at the beam waist (intracavity focus) via Equation (3):
(21)
where l and m are the mode orders in the tangential (x) and sagittal (y) planes, respectively, H.sub.l is the l.sup.th order Hermite polynomial, and w.sub.0x and w.sub.0y are the 1/e.sup.2 intensity radii of the fundamental TEM.sub.00 mode in the x and y directions [24]. In a ring cavity with spherical mirrors, astigmatism causes w.sub.0xw.sub.0y, which breaks the degeneracy between horizontal and vertical modes via their different round-trip Gouy phase shifts, described by Equation (1).
(22) To resonantly enhance a desired 2D signal, the generated signal comb must be resonant with one or more of the cavity's transverse modes. In the single cavity scheme of
(23)
(24) In Equations (4) and (5), the upper sign corresponds to the rephasing signal, and the lower sign corresponds to the non-rephasing signal. This can be satisfied via Equations (6) and (7):
l.sub.t=l.sub.1l.sub.2+l.sub.3(6)
m.sub.t=m.sub.1m.sub.2+m.sub.3, (7)
as illustrated in
(25) Only the spatial component of the generated field that is mode-matched to the target cavity mode will be resonantly enhanced. The spatial overlap factor <u.sub.t|u.sup.(3)> between the generated E.sup.(3) comb, with normalized spatial mode amplitude u.sup.(3) and the target resonant TEM.sub.l.sub.
(26)
where the u.sub.lm are defined by Equation (3). With heterodyne detection, the fundamental shot-noise limit on the signal to noise scales also then scales as
(27)
(28) The spatial-mode selectivity of the cavity via Equation (8) is analogous to phase matching in conventional 2D spectroscopy setups. Akin to isolation of a desired signal in a boxcar geometry by detecting in a certain direction, use of higher-order modes in CE-2D spectroscopy allows for isolation of a desired signal by detecting in a certain spatial mode. The generation and resonant enhancement of CE-2D signals using higher order cavity modes can thus be viewed as selecting a desired third-order response signal through a combination of both phase cycling and spatial discrimination/phase matching. This combination makes CE-2D spectroscopy highly selective, even in the completely collinear geometry of u.sub.t|u.sup.(3)
|=0.65. Without mode degeneracy, the non-rephasing signal is not resonantly enhanced, and would instead be recorded by reversing the time-ordering of E.sub.1 and E.sub.2. Undesired signals, although emitted collinearly, are suppressed from the target mode via a combination of the spatial and frequency discrimination. For example, the transient absorption signals |E.sub.1|.sup.2E.sub.3 and |E.sub.2|.sup.2E.sub.3 are enhanced in the TEM.sub.00 mode occupied by E.sub.3 but are generated with both the wrong frequency
(29)
and the wrong spatial symmetry (|u.sub.t|u.sup.(3)
|=0) to appear in the target TEM.sub.01. Similarly, two quantum signals E.sub.1E.sub.2E.sub.3* are weakly resonant with the TEM.sub.21 mode (|
u.sub.21|u.sup.(3)
|=0.05) but are suppressed from the target TEM.sub.01 mode by frequency discrimination. Some fifth-order signals and cascaded third-order signals do satisfy the resonance and symmetry requirements necessary to be resonantly enhanced in the target mode, but can be distinguished via power and sample density dependence of the signal, as in conventional 2D spectroscopy. Using a cavity where some of the modes are degenerate provides additional opportunities, and can be done by tuning the curved mirror separation such that either 2/.sub.tan or 2/.sub.sag(or both) are integers.
(30) In regards to physical implementations of the above-described resonantly enhanced phase-cycling, since E.sub.1, E.sub.2, and E.sub.3 can share a common repetition rate and differ only by carrier envelope offset frequency, they can be generated from a single frequency comb generator (e.g. a mode-locked laser) by diffraction from fixed-frequency AOMs, without requiring three separate frequency comb generators. Alternatively, multiple phase-locked frequency comb sources with independent repetition rates can be used, as in dual comb techniques [23] for linear spectroscopy, at added cost and complexity. Cavity geometry and mode selection can depend on and be optimized based on system complexity, signal enhancement factor, signal specificity, ease of alignment, attainable sample length, and signal readout, based on demands of a particular measurement. Using a single cavity allows for simple configuration of the optical alignment and stabilization of the apparatus and system, and allows for a longer effective sample length where the pump and probe frequency comb beams spatially overlap, for an increased column density of molecules, but requires separation of the weak signal field from the intense collinear pump and probe fields.
(31) The present disclosure also covers two-cavity schemes, illustrated in
(32)
(33)
(34) This two-cavity optical arrangement is similar to a setup for cavity-enhanced ultrafast transient absorption spectroscopy previously demonstrated by the inventor in [21], but has the critical difference that with the multi-mode phase cycling pump excitation, the modulation on the probe light can be generated at a modulation frequency larger than the optical linewidths of the resonators. At these high frequencies, the probe cavity filters intensity and frequency noise of the transmitted comb light, such that much better noise rejection is achievable compared to [21]. Importantly, [21] did not record 2D spectroscopy signals.
(35) Accordingly, an apparatus for optical spectroscopy is provided having at least two cavities and a controller that controls a pump excitation using at least two frequency combs resonantly enhanced in at least one transverse mode of a pump cavity of the at least two cavities, controls a probe excitation using at least one frequency comb resonantly enhanced in at least one transverse mode of a probe cavity of the at least two cavities, controls generating a resonantly enhanced signal frequency comb via a nonlinear-optical response of the sample, isolates a 2D spectroscopy signal in the non-collinear geometry by demodulating a signal that appears as an amplitude modulation on light transmitted in the probe cavity, and controls recording of the 2D spectroscopy signal using a lock-in demodulation of light transmitted in the probe cavity at a demodulation frequency of carrier-envelope offset differences of the at least two frequency combs of the pump excitation. The at least two cavities provide a non-collinear geometry, and a point of overlap of the pump excitation and the probe excitation is provided in the at least two cavities.
(36) A method is also provided that includes generating a pump excitation using at least two frequency combs, generating a probe excitation using at least one frequency comb, and generating resonantly enhanced signal frequency combs via a nonlinear optical response of a sample, with the at least two pump frequency combs and the at least one probe frequency comb are resonant with at least one transverse mode of at least one cavity in which a sample is positioned for performing 2D spectroscopy, with the resonantly enhanced frequency combs enhancing the 2D spectroscopy of the sample, and the at least two pump frequency combs and the at least one probe frequency comb being coupled to at least one transverse mode of the at least one cavity.
(37) While the disclosure has been shown and described with reference to certain embodiments thereof, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in form and detail may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims and equivalents thereof.
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